Nick Fury listened to Hill's report and thought to himself, "The Sound Ninja's retaliation has come faster than expected."
At the same time, he silently praised his own foresight for sensing danger and deciding to check on Coulson's situation the previous day.
Just then, Coulson approached, looking at his superior, Nick Fury.
Fury spoke, "Headquarters is under attack by the Sound Ninja. I need to get to the command center and assess the situation."
"You'll continue handling the situation with the Cloud Ninja. Try to gather more intel."
"Since the target is just a kid, he should be easier to win over. If any more Cloud Ninja arrive at the Inca Temple, I'll have Barton contact you."
"Yes, sir!"
After giving Coulson these instructions, Nick Fury swiftly ran towards the command center of the Slingshot base, moving at a speed far beyond that of an ordinary human.
Once in the command center, Nick Fury immediately ordered, "Deploy our satellites. I want to know what's happening on New York's central island."
"Yes, sir!"
Soon, satellite images were transmitted, showing the entire central island encased in red crystal.
The agents in the command center were momentarily stunned; they knew exactly what that location was.
Nick Fury stroked his chin, realizing that the Sound Ninja possessed multiple types of barrier techniques, despite being from what was considered the weakest ninja village on the ninja village.
…
Triskelion Headquarters-
Upon hearing the alarm, Steve Rogers quickly grabbed his shield and rushed to the Avengers' operations room.
By the time he arrived, Chen Haoran, and Brock Rumlow, were already fully armed and in the room.
Steve looked at them and said, "The Sound Ninja are likely the attackers. You'll come with me to stop them."
Chen Haoran showed no fear and was ready to move out.
However, Brock Rumlow interjected, "Captain, we're not a match for those ninjas."
"Commander Hill instructed us to evacuate the civilian staff and escort them to the safe room."
Chen Haoran felt that, although he might not be able to handle high-level ninjas or Kage-level opponents, he could still hold his own against lower-level Sound Ninja.
He insisted, "Captain, I'll go with you."
Seeing Chen Haoran's resolve, Steve Rogers placed his shield on his back and said, "Rumlow, you're in charge of evacuating the civilian staff."
"Chen Haoran, you'll come with me to hold them off and buy Rumlow some time."
As Steve turned his back to the two men, his voice was resolute, "Even if we're not as strong as they are, I will stand firm in front of them."
"If they want to harm the people behind me, they'll have to step over my dead body first."
Brock Rumlow and Chen Haoran watched the Captain's back. In that moment, they felt the unique charisma of Captain America.
Rumlow, for a moment, felt tempted to join the Captain in battle, but he quickly suppressed the urge, remembering his true mission.
He couldn't afford to die—not yet, not now. He had a mission to complete.
The three men left the operations room together, with Brock Rumlow heading to evacuate the civilian staff.
At the Entrance of the Triskelion-
Chen Haoran followed closely behind Captain America as they moved forward.
Meanwhile, the alloy gate at the entrance had already been shattered by Jirōbō. The Sound Four entered the circular structure, with the Triskelion building standing before them.
Suddenly, the ground outside the building began to rise, revealing several fortified bunkers equipped with heavy machine guns, which immediately opened fire.
"Ratatatatata!"
In just one second, the four heavy machine guns unleashed over a hundred bullets.
Seeing the bullets coming their way, Jirōbō slammed his palm onto the ground, causing a massive stone slab to rise and shield them. Simultaneously, Tayuya played her flute, summoning a wrathful demon wielding a giant club.
The demon appeared in front of the bunkers and, with a single swing of its club, destroyed all four bunkers and their machine guns.
The bullets fired at them were blocked entirely by the stone slab Jirōbō had raised. At that moment, the doors of the armory lifted, and three tanks rolled out to confront the Sound Four.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The moment the armory doors opened, the three tanks fired their shells at the Sound Four's position.
The shells traveled at tremendous speed, landing near the Sound Four and kicking up a cloud of dust. One of the soldiers inside a tank peered through the scope and shouted, "Did we hit them?"
As the smoke cleared, there was no sign of the Sound Four at the impact site. Suddenly, Jirōbō appeared near one of the tanks. He charged at it with such speed that a sonic boom echoed around him.
With a powerful shoulder charge, Jirōbō flipped the tank over. He then grabbed it with both hands, lifted it, and hurled it at another tank.
Meanwhile, Kidōmaru drew his bow, took aim, and fired a single arrow that pierced through the last tank, causing an explosion from within.
"Boom!"
While Kidōmaru and Jirōbō were attacking the three tanks, the armory doors on the other side quietly opened, allowing a fleet of Quinjet aircraft to take off.
Since they were trapped by the barrier, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't launch F-22 fighter jets but instead deployed various other vehicles.
The Quinjets didn't immediately attack the Sound Four but instead fired missiles at the barrier trapping them.
Tayuya glanced at the Quinjets in the sky and sneered, "Do they really think these pieces of junk can break Lady Guren's barrier? How laughable."
The Sound Four had been filled with excitement the previous night when they were summoned by Orochimaru and Guren in the summoning realm.
Their faith in the impending retaliation was unwavering now that the backbone of Otogakure had returned.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Multiple missiles struck Guren's crystal barrier, but after the explosions, the barrier didn't even show a crack.
In the command center, Hill watched this unfold with a furrowed brow. Regular missiles were ineffective, and using more powerful ones inside the barrier would be suicidal.
After all, the situation hadn't escalated to the point of mutual destruction.
"Deploy the energy cannon!"
Since losing the Tesseract, Nick Fury had continued developing energy weapons using the remaining Type II energy blocks. These included not only the energy guns used by Coulson during the Battle of New York but also a more powerful energy cannon.
However, these weapons had become one-time-use devices; once the Type II energy blocks were depleted, the weapons would be rendered useless.